Abstract
A field trial was conducted to observe the effects of different irrigation strategies on the yield and the water use, oil content and marginal return of sunflower which was irrigated by means of a drip system during 2010 and 2011 under Cukurova condition of Turkey. The irrigation strategies include three irrigation intervals (A1: 25 mm; A2: 50 mm; A3: 75 mm of cumulative pan evaporation) and six water levels (WL) based upon the percentages of cumulative pan evaporation (WL1= 0.50, WL2= 0.75, WL3= 1.00 and WL4= 1.25). In addition, WL5= PRD50 and WL6= PRD75 treatments were evaluated. They obtained water from alternative laterals 50% and 75% of the WL3 treatment. Additionally, a nonirrigated treatment (NI) was included as control plot in the experiment. In each of the experimental years, the largest and the smallest average yields were acquired from the A2WL4 and NI treatments, respectively. The oil content and fatty acid composition were significantly affected by irrigation strategies. The oil content increased with the increasing amount of irrigation. Among all irrigation intervals, PRD-50 (WL5) treatment provided the largest water use efficiency (WUE) and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) values in both growing seasons. In order to attain higher yields and a generated the marginal return, A2WL4 irrigation regime is suggested for sunflower production in the Mediterranean region. A2WL3 water strategy is proposed for an acceptable marginal return in case of water shortage.
Highlights
Sunflower is an important agricultural crop in most of the sunflower growing countries
The results indicated that A1WL3 and A1WL4 in A1, A2WL2, A2WL3, A2WL4 and A2WL5 in A2, and A3WL3 and A3WL4 in A3 were the economical treatments since they generated higher income over the irrigation cost
The oil contents were considerably affected depending on different irrigation intervals and levels
Summary
Sunflower is an important agricultural crop in most of the sunflower growing countries. The Mediterranean region in Turkey is defined as a semi-arid zone where most of the limited annual precipitation and uneven distribution occurs from October to May during the principal growing season. Water deficiency in this region is one of the most important factors affecting crop yield. The main goals of this research were to (a) detecting the effect of different deficit irrigation strategies on water use, seed, oil yields and oil yield-response factor of the sunflower and (b) evaluating the WUE and IWUE subject to different irrigation treatments and (c) estimating marginal return created by drip irrigated sunflower grown in the Çukurova region of Turkey
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